Penguins, Raiders meet tonight in Green Bay

March 14, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

Penguins, Raiders meet

tonight in Green Bay

YOUNGSTOWN

So far this year, Youngs-town State has shown it can’t beat Wright State in Dayton or Youngstown.

Tonight, it’ll give Green Bay a try.

The third-seeded Penguins (15-15) will play second-seeded Wright State in the Horizon League semifinals at the Resch Center.

The Raiders have already beaten YSU at home (93-81) and at Beeghly Center (85-70), but as Penguin senior Melissa Thompson said, those games won’t matter tonight.

“They got us twice in the regular season but, honestly, the regular season doesn’t matter,” she said. “This is the game that’s going to count.”

Wright State (24-8) boasts Horizon League player of the year Kim Demmings, who led the league in scoring with 22.4 points per game. Ivory James, who was fourth in the league with 17.7 points per game, also made first team all-conference.

The Raiders lead the league in scoring with 83.8 points per game and YSU senior Liz Hornberger said the Penguins weren’t prepared for WSU’s athleticism in the first meeting. The second meeting wasn’t much better, as YSU fell behind 44-25 at halftime.

“You’ve got to be tough; you’ve got to be extra mentally tough with them,” Hornberger said. “You have to play defense every time. They’re scoring machines. And if we go into that [game] thinking, ‘Oh we have this,’ which I don’t think we will, then we’re not going to win.

“We have to be the tougher team.”

YSU, which beat Oakland 68-64 in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, is back in the tournament semifinals for the second straight year. The Penguins played their worst game of the 2012-13 season in last year’s semifinals, falling to Loyola 72-42.

If the Penguins can somehow get past Wright State, they would likely meet Green Bay in the final. YSU has never advanced to the League championship game.

“Wright State is probably the most talented team in the league,” YSU coach John Barnes said. “They create all kinds of matchup problems for us but we’re also very motivated to play our best game.”

Hornberger said she’d rather play the Raiders at home, but she thinks playing on a neutral court could be beneficial.

“I think the tournament scenery will help a lot because it adds pressure,” she said. “It is one and done for a lot of people on this team, so I think the mental aspect will be there where it was lacking the first two games.”